🚨: The Big Story

Workday's AI rejected him 100 times. Now a federal court says the algorithm has to answer for it.

On March 14, a federal judge in California's Northern District rejected Workday's attempt to dismiss age discrimination claims against its AI screening tools. Judge Rita Lin ruled that job applicants can bring disparate impact claims under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, shutting down Workday's argument that the law only protects employees, not applicants. The case, Mobley v. Workday, is now a nationwide collective action. The opt-in window for applicants aged 40+ who applied through Workday's platform since September 2020 closed March 7, but the case is very much alive.

Why it matters:

Derek Mobley applied to over 100 jobs through Workday's platform. Rejected every time. Sometimes within minutes, including one rejection at 1:50 AM. The court found it plausible that Workday's algorithms weren't just sorting resumes; they were making hiring decisions. And 88% of companies now use AI in candidate screening (per the World Economic Forum). If you've ever applied and been instantly rejected with no explanation, this case is about you.

Our take:

Workday's defense is simple: "We're a vendor, not the employer." The court didn't buy it. When software decides who gets an interview and who gets a form rejection at 2 AM, it's performing a hiring function. Full stop. The EEOC filed an amicus brief backing the plaintiff. AARP's January 2026 survey found 33% of workers 50+ say employers assume they're less tech-savvy. This isn't just one guy's lawsuit. It's the first real legal test of whether AI hiring tools have to play by the same anti-discrimination rules as human recruiters. If Workday loses, every ATS vendor in the country will have to answer the same question.

What to watch:

• Plaintiffs have until March 27 to file an amended complaint. Workday got some state law claims tossed, but the core federal age discrimination claim survived.

• This ruling lands during Nvidia GTC week, where Jensen Huang projected $1 trillion in AI chip orders through 2027. The AI hiring infrastructure keeps expanding. The legal guardrails are just now being built.

• Other lawsuits are forming: Eightfold AI faces similar claims, and Harper v. Sirius XM is challenging AI screening under Title VII. A pattern is emerging.

Take action:

• Bookmark workdaycase.com. The opt-in deadline passed, but case outcomes will still shape how ATS vendors operate going forward.

• Start documenting rejection timestamps. If you're getting bounced in minutes (or in the middle of the night), that's evidence of automated screening. Save everything.

📉 Layoff Report

Dell's quiet bleed, Meta's escalating threat, and the EV market's Georgia gut punch.

• Dell: Filed this week: 11,000 jobs gone over fiscal year 2026, a 10% reduction. Third year in a row at the same pace. No mass layoff announcement; just hiring freezes, reorgs, and attrition doing the work. Spent $569M on severance. Dell now has 36,000 fewer employees than February 2023. Source

• Meta (update): Last week we reported the 1,500 Reality Labs cuts. This week, Reuters dropped a bigger number: up to 20% of Meta's 79,000 workforce (roughly 16,000 people) could be next. Meta called the report "speculative," but $135 billion in planned AI capex has to come from somewhere. Source

• SK Battery America: Cut 958 workers (37% of its workforce) at its Commerce, Georgia EV battery plant. Not an AI story; the EV market stalled and federal incentives dried up. A law firm is investigating potential WARN Act violations. Source

• xAI: Musk's AI company quietly reorganized, cutting at least two co-founders and eight engineers. Half of xAI's original 12 co-founders are now gone. Musk says they'll hire "aggressively" to replace them. Source

Bottom line: The 2026 total crossed 55,000 tech cuts across 170+ companies. Dell's approach is the one to watch: no headlines, no all-hands, just a slow grind that shaves 10% every year. If your company's headcount is shrinking without anyone announcing layoffs, you might already be in one.

🧑‍✈️ Career CoPilot

Your Resume is Battling Bots 🤖 🥊 

The Workday lawsuit makes it painfully clear: AI screening tools are the first (and sometimes only) gatekeeper between you and a human reviewer.

Here's how to get past them.

• Strip your graduation year if you're 40+. ATS tools can estimate age from it. Keep your education, drop the date. The Mobley case literally alleges Workday's tools deprioritized applicants based on age-correlated data.

• Mirror the job posting's exact phrasing. If it says "project management," don't write "program management." AI screeners match keywords literally. Read the listing like it's the answer key, because it is.

• Use a single-column layout with standard section headers (Experience, Education, Skills). Creative layouts with columns, graphics, or unusual formatting break parsers. Clean and scannable beats pretty and broken.

• Don't stuff keywords in white text. Screening tools catch this, and it's an instant rejection. Weave target keywords naturally into your bullet points.

• Run your resume through a free ATS checker before every application. Jobscan and SkillSyncer both show keyword match rates and formatting issues. Five minutes of checking can save you from the 1:50 AM rejection.

📊 Trends & Data

$1 trillion in chip orders. 55,000 jobs gone. Someone's math is off.

• Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang projected $1 trillion in AI chip orders through 2027 at GTC this week. Last year that number was $500 billion. The infrastructure buildout is doubling. Source

• Dell's workforce is down 27% since February 2023 (36,000 people), all without a single mass layoff announcement. The "silent restructuring" is becoming a corporate playbook. Source

• AARP's January 2026 survey: 33% of workers 50+ say employers assume they're less tech-savvy. 24% say employers assume they resist change. Almost no improvement from 2024. Source

• 88% of companies now use AI in candidate screening (World Economic Forum, 2025). The court in Mobley v. Workday is the first to seriously ask: who's responsible when those tools discriminate? Source

What this means for you: A trillion dollars in AI chip orders means this infrastructure isn't going away. The companies building it are hiring. But the tools built on that infrastructure are also screening you out. Learn how they work, then beat them at their own game.

👀 Companies to Watch

Five companies that just raised billions and need to spend it.

• Thinking Machines Lab: Mira Murati's AI startup (ex-OpenAI CTO). Raised $2 billion in 13 months. Just got a major Nvidia investment plus access to next-gen Vera Rubin chips. Grew from 30 to 120 employees and still scaling across research and engineering. Learn more

• Nebius Group: Amsterdam-based neocloud company. Nvidia just invested $2 billion. Building AI data centers targeting 5+ gigawatts by 2030. Hiring across infrastructure, engineering, and operations. Careers

• Juicebox: AI-native recruiting platform. $80M Series B at $850M valuation. 5,000+ paying customers. Hiring across engineering, product, and enterprise sales in SF. Careers

• Vanta: Automated security compliance. $243M Series C (a16z). 200-500 employees, hiring engineering and customer success. Remote-friendly. Careers

• Wonderful: AI customer service agents. Just closed $150M Series B (Insight Partners). Tel Aviv-based, hiring globally across engineering and go-to-market. Careers

🧰 Jobseeker Tools

Four tools to fight the bots, track your rights, and sharpen your resume.

• Jobscan: Paste your resume and a job description; it shows exactly which keywords you're missing and how to fix formatting for ATS parsers. Free tier available. Essential after this week's Workday news. Try it

• workdaycase.com: Official site for the Mobley v. Workday collective action. If you applied through Workday since September 2020 and were 40+, bookmark this for case updates and potential outcomes. Check it

• Wellfound (formerly AngelList Talent): Startup job board with salary transparency, equity details, and company funding info built in. Good for finding recently funded companies that are actively hiring. Try it

• Offboard Resume Tailor: AI-powered resume customization matched to specific job descriptions. Highlights keyword gaps and suggests rewrites so your resume speaks the same language as the posting. Free tier: 30 credits/mo. Try it